To think most people cook from their heads?

[untiedstates]

I can just walk into the kitchen and start cooking. For example, pasta sauce I will chop and onion and get it softening then scan the fridge for veg and protein and chop and bung in. Similar for curry. Similar for soup, stew, pie filling, savoury mince and all sorts. I use recipes when baking. If I’m trying something new then I will usually read 8-10 recipes then make up my own borrowing bits from each.

DH thinks this is some sort of witchcraft. He can accurately follow a recipe but gets extremely panicky if the recipe calls for onion but we only have leek or if mince comes in 400g packets and the recipe calls for 450g.

I think most people cook like me, he thinks most are like him. Who’s BU?

Honestly I vary how I do it. Can I make a meal from scratch with leftovers? absolutely. But like everyone else meal planning makes the most sense (financially it saves me money too).

It also takes some culinary skill to make meals from scratch. You have to know the basics for a good curry/tomato/cheese sauce. Same for pastry etc. Sure you can throw anything in and it will probably be edible but to be really tasty you have to know flavour combinations, spices herbs etc.

I’m teaching my kids how to make these sauces from scratch - the youngest does get confused as to why spices and herbs are used in different sauces. But hopefully it will benefit them in the long run!

Im a recipie cook but as above i can use left overs to make a new meal.

I would also worry that if all the meals and recipies only exist in my head then all the cooking would fall to me. As the person that plans the meals, its helpful that anyone else in the house can pick up each dish because they have the link, use what
they are meant to (eg veg on the turn, or dont use things crucial to tomorrows meal) and arent constantly relying on me. It sounds like a way to become the sole cook of the house!

Meal planning for us is crucial. I hate food waste, so we can plan to make sure we are using up all of what we buy, and it stops us getting stuck eating the same meals all the time. We are tricky eaters as predominately vegan so it encourages us to try new things. Sometimes the plan does include basic things where theres no recipe eg pasta with roasted veg, or shepherds pie etc.

Bit of both for me. Stuff in the week is easy and straightforward so no real recipe to follow. I'm more likely to search for a new recipe for something for a weekend meal as I have a bit more time in which case I'd be following a recipe to the letter, especially if my mum is coming as shes veggie.

There are two kinds of people imo, those that can cook like you and I that enjoy making a feast out of a stock cube and a soft mushroom and those that could make something average by following a receipe and using the best ingredients.

I think the difference between the two is a joy of food and cooking, scanning the supermarkets when abroad for new things, getting excited about it delicatessens, buying new cuts of meat in the farm shop even though you have never tried them and can only guess at how they should be cooked.

The others will dutifully make something but can’t taste and adjust, turn the heat up or down to suit the dish, get everything ready at once.

I liken it to someone that loves to draw but just can’t however much they try (me)
And those that can doodle any old object and it looks amazing, how do they do it???

I learned to cook at university and beyond - starting like your dh and becoming like you. Shopping for food, reading about food, expanding the repertoire are all sources of joy for me. I learned by reading, starting with Delia's Complete Cookery and progressing through Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food etc. Bearing in mind my mum didn't use onions or own a vegetable peeler starting from the beginning and understanding food from first principles was necessary. People now would say that I am instinctive in my cooking but it's an ongoing learning process.

I don’t have a clue how to cook without a recipe.

You clearly need more practice! The main drawback to on the hoof cooking is that you usually can't replicate something and sods law says that it's an amzingly good meal. I once made a curry without recipe and have never been able to make one as good.

Baking something new, follow receipe for first time.
Everything else mix and match add what is available. Example making veg soup/curry add a couple of apples near end of life. Buy meats that can be turned into multiplethings which I decide on the day.Example chicken into curry or sweet and sour or chicken pie or roast as I keep store cupboard with basics and veg. I do not like wasting food

New recipe or something where proportions need to be right I will follow instructions. However, my bf has no creativity in the kitchen. He has no idea how to combine different ingredients and just puts random things together that seem a bit weird (which can be a bit annoying since they might have made 2-3 more meals but oh well). He always seems so amazed that I can come up with a meal when looking at the ingredients.

Stuff I know how to cook, yes. Stuff that's new to me, I use a recipe the first few times. When I first met DH I couldn't make bigos without both a written recipe and him on hand, these days I don't even think as I make it.

I think the big thing is timing, being able to work out how to make sure everything is ready at more or less the same time. DH just can't, for some reason, seem to do that. When he does dinner we end up with a lot of things ready too early and needing to be kept warm waiting for the rest and he seems totally confused as to how to plan so that doesn't happen!

I do both. Have to admit that it turns out a lot better when I follow the damn recipe though! DH hates me improvising as it's always 50/50 whether it will turn out well.

I'm mostly instinctive. I have an idea of what's coming up in the week, so I am aware Wednesday evening I'm out, so needs to be quick and easy. I also think about what veg or meat needs using up. Shopping list is a mix of specifics, so this week included tin foil, which I don't buy often, but don't tend to write down milk, as I know I get that every week. I usually buy meat and veg depending what's in season (I don't buy Peruvian asparagus or Kenyan beans) and on the shelves, but I have an overall idea of what I want. If I want to do something new, I might have a more focused shopping list.

We had a large, productive garden in my childhood, so we often had to deal with a glut of raspberries or runner beans or something, so we would end up with lots of meals with variations of the same vegetable (and at various points of the year, my mother saying we needed to eat up the freezer, which I find mystifying as an adult, too...)

I do use recipe books, but usually for inspiration than exact instructions. I can make a basic cake by just chucking butter, flour, etc together till it looks right, but a new baking recipe, I will measure. Yesterday, I did pastry for probably the first time in 3 years or do, so I did look up time and temperature for the oven as a reminder. I grew up with a Rayburn, which didn't always heat consistently, so I think that gave me an idea of how things could be adjusted and what things needed more accuracy. Also, I have travelled quite a bit, and learnt you can create makeshift ovens for cake and so on, when you're in the middle of nowhere, and you can end up with something very acceptable without it being a perfect 175degC. Millions of cooks before the mid-20th century wouldn't have had ovens with exact thermostats, so there's always a bit of leeway.

I agree with those who say you need to build experience to become instinctive.

I can cook like you op. If I'm trying something new and it's ingredients that are familiar to me I'll normally just read the recipe and adapt it to what I know or what I have and go from there.

If it's something more exotic to me I'll follow the recipe to the letter a couple of times and then slowly just adapt it to how we'd prefer it or to suit the veg in the fridge.

I do meal plan but fairly roughly, for example for a bolognaise I'd buy mince and check we have chopped tomatoes or passata and peppers and onions. Other than that the ingredients would vary depending on the odd bits of veg left over from other things. My store of spices is pretty well stocked so I know I'm good there and just try to make a note if I run out of anything.

But I was taught home cooking from a young age, I know what herbs and spices tend to go together and what dishes they mostly go with. My MIL for example can cook but I've seen her watching me cook in amazement as I wasn't following a recipe and wasn't measuring anything. I was also just looking through the spices and quite possibly looked like I was grabbing them at random as I hadn't decided which ones I wanted before I'd started.

I loosely meal plan as I hate throwing food away and wasting money, so it ensures everything is used. I tend to do meals I've done before so do from memory, and tweak if we had additional ingredients in I think will work etc. If I do something new I'll follow the recipe and then not bother once I've learnt it, so depends really.

I am the same as your DH. I don't know anything about cooking/food so need to carefully follow a recipe or packet instructions.
My DH is a chef and can magic a delicious meal from nowhere.

I couldn't do it like you but my best friend can and I think it's amazing. I am in awe of how cooking just seems to come so natural to her and she can whip up amazing meals with very little effort or concentration. She makes everything look so easy.

I have to follow recipe to the T and even then they can go wrong. So I am much more like your DH.

None of you are being unreasonable but you are lucky to have this skill.

I'm a bit of both. I can cook off the cuff but tend to be repetitive so I meal plan and use recipes to change things up sometimes. I try to include 'something different' a couple times a week to widen my repertoire.

I like both - meals I can just rustle up and recipes I’ve never tried want to learn.

Ditto meal planning - some basic structure based on how the diary looks and the weather forecast, but plenty of flexibility and mix and match.
Take Tuesdays, when there’s only 45 minutes in the evening when everyone is home between after school activities, volunteering, Guides and weekly quiz league, for example. That’s always got to be something quick and filling. Whereas no one’s busy on Wednesday so it can be a leisurely meal.

Love recipes - love finding new flavours, get bored with the same old thing. I usually try 2-3 new recipes a week, I find the OPs way of cooking more relaxing but I am always seeking the new.

I do both .
I wouldn't use a recipe for everyday meals eg spaghetti bolognaise, roast chicken, chicken curry ie things that I have cooked regularly for years and can easily adapt depending on what is in the fridge. I do like trying new things and particularly if it is flavours that I don't have a handle on eg Korean would use a recipe . I also read some recipes for ideas and don't follow to the letter just get an idea of new flavour combinations. Since COVID I have been minimising my trips to the supermarket so I have been a lot more structured about meal planning. Although I am planning what we eat I am flexible in the shops trying to buy best quality meat , fish and Veg that haven't travelled in an aeroplane and look as if they will last or survive freezing until I require them

Meal planning and ingredients in in advance. I sometimes adapt recipes when I know them well. I rarely invent anything. Your way sounds quite stressful to me.

In our first flat we only had one kitchen cupboard so didn't have the space for ingredients to cook in the way the OP suggests. We had to meal-pkan and buy ingredients to just last us the week. We have more space now but still prefer to plan meals as we find it saves wastage.

I think most experienced cooks can do this, I certainly do the same as you.

My DH however, can just about follow a recipe (if anything goes slightly tits up, he will panic and have no idea how to rectify it) he also can't do it if the instructions are too vague.

I'm Team OP on this one. I actually find following a recipe quite stressful (which is why I don't really like baking). I like making it up as I go along. The only downside is not being able to perfectly replicate something that turns out unbelievably amazing.

I think it just means you're (we're) confident in the kitchen.

Like many people here, it seems, I cook mainly without recipes, and without measuring/weighing ingredients. I probably cook from scratch 6 days a week. I love looking at new recipes but often I use them as the basis for something which I then adapt to taste or to suit whatever I happen to have to hand. That's particularly true of vegetarian and vegan food which I am eating more of now. Sometimes just seeing a picture is enough to give me an idea and I don't bother looking at all the ingredients listed.

Baking is different. I don't do that very often and with only a couple of exceptions always follow recipes and weigh out ingredients carefully.

There are a few things in the middle - like quiche - where I don't have to think about most of it, but do have to check amounts eg how much flour to use to make the pastry, or how many eggs I need, because that differs depends on what size quiche I'm making.

I always cook from my head. Even if I have a recipe, I change it to suit me.